Ah, to be a highly paid and gifted athlete with a purported affection for strippers. Either Yankees manager Joe is thrilled that the attention is on A-Rod or he's pissed that there's another reason to talk about the beleaguered team, but what's for sure is that Alex Rodriguez's off the playing field antics are tabloid gold.

The Post reveals that A-Rod's "busty blond" companion seen on the Wednesday Post cover is a "longtime stripper and Playboy Bunny wannabe" Joslyn Noel Morse. The 30-year-old was "most recently was an exotic dancer at Scores Las Vegas" and is a "corn-fed Catholic-school girl from Iowa who quickly took up the stripping trade after high school." One high school classmate of Morse's who is now a New Yorker told the Post, "I was absolutely shocked, because it totally came flooding back that this is a girl I went to high school with" and was shocked that she was hanging out with A-Rod; however, another friend said Morse was "sort of a wild child" back in Iowa.

Yesterday, Rodriguez and wife Cynthia were seen in Boston, acting happy, as A-Rod is in town to play the Red Sox. Sources told the Daily News that Cynthia will "plans to stay with him through the weekend, then travel with him to Chicago as the Bombers continue a 10-day road trip. The couple dealt with the paparazzi as A-Rod signed autographs.

The News' Mike Lupica's column is titled, "Yankee image is now A-joke." And slightly related: On the Post, there is advertising for Derek Jeter's men's line for Avon.